A medical center allegedly told a single mother to fundraise $10,000 for a heart transplant

November 29, 2018  13:02

A 60-year-old woman's need for a heart transplant has revealed the problems within America's healthcare system, after she was told by a medical clinic in Michigan to turn to GoFundMe to pay for drugs needed for the procedure.

Hedda Martin received a letter from the transplant committee at Spectrum Health's Richard DeVos Heart and Lung Transplant Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, earlier this month saying she could not have a heart transplant because she didn't have the funds to pay for post-transplant immunosuppressant drugs that would ensure that the new organ would not be rejected by her body.

"The Committee is recommending a fundraising effort of $10,000," read the letter to Martin, which she uploaded to Facebook in a now-deleted post and was later shared on Twitter by journalist Luke O'Neil.

Martin was asked to show the clinic that she has $10,000 in savings before she's eligible for a transplant, she said in the Facebook post.

"Only when I have raised that required amount, will I then be 'reconsidered' for heart transplant," she wrote, according to Splinter. "Not automatically added to list but reconsidered. This is new."

Martin has a $4,500 annual deductible on her Medicare plan, and would have been required to pay a $700-a-month copay on immunosuppressant drugs until she met that deductible, according to The Detroit Free Press.

But Martin is disabled and hasn't been able to work since 2017. She needs the heart transplant due to congestive heart failure, which she occurred as a result of chemotherapy she underwent to treat breast cancer in 2005.

Martin's story went viral over the weekend, with many mentioning how it highlighted the broken for-profit health insurance system in the United States.

Following the advice of the clinic, Martin's son, Alex Britt, set up a GoFundMe on Saturday. The page has since raised more than $29,000 for Martin's heart transplant and treatment.

Source: https://www.thisisinsider.com/michigan-medical-center-told-woman-to-fundraise-for-a-heart-transplant-2018-11

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